This document discusses the relationship between socialists and the concept of land value taxation (LVT). It argues that while some Georgists have criticized socialism, socialists' goals of full employment, common ownership of land wealth, and a fairer society are well-aligned with LVT. The document notes that Henry George worked with trade unionists and that socialists like Marx supported the idea of abolishing private property in land. It concludes by asking whether Georgists want socialists and allies to advocate for LVT, as their objectives could be advanced through this policy.

1. Socialists & land
Dave Wetzel
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport
President of The IU
President – Labour Land Campaign
Chair – The Professional Land Reform Group
The IU, London, UK 2013

2. Socialists aim to change the
world
My considerable experience in the Labour, Co-operative and Trade
Union Movement indicates that:
•Socialists hold high ideals
•Socialists want to build a better and fairer world
•Socialists organise the working class
•Socialists educate, demonstrate, agitate, campaign
•Socialists actively work to alleviate immediate suffering
•Socialists have been successful in influencing Governments
•Socialists often enjoy a spirit of comradeship and unity
•So why do most socialists NOT support LVT?

3. Do Georgists Love Socialists?
“The extreme socialist is like the man who would have his conscious will direct his
stomach how to digest his food” Henry George – Protection of Free Trade
“But it seems to us the vice of socialism in all its degrees is its want of radicalism”
Henry George – Condition of Labour
“The socialist model was anathema to Henry George”
Fred Harrison – Power in the Land
Most books written by Georgists criticise socialists and socialism

4. AND YET……………………..
Henry George worked WITH Trade Unionists
• When did a Georgist last have 100,000 people at their funeral?
(Most of which were Trade Unionists
who were supporting his new York Mayoral campaign)
• Do we want Socialists, Co-operators
and Trade Unionists to support LVT?

5. Many books written by Georgists criticise
socialists and socialism
Many words spoken by Georgists criticise
socialists and socialism
Is this the best way to to gain allies?
Do you want socialists to ally with us?

6. Socialists need lvt
The main reason why socialists should support LVT is because it helps
them achieve their objectives:
•Full employment
•Collection of the major part of surplus value
•Common ownership of land wealth
•Improve housing conditions
•Avoid boom bust caused by land speculation
•A better and fairer society

7. “After the restoration of the Stuarts, the landed proprietors carried,
by legal means, an act of usurpation, effected everywhere on the
Continent without any legal formality. They abolished the feudal
tenure of land, i.e., they got rid of all its obligations to the State,
“indemnified” the State by taxes on the peasantry and the rest of the
mass of the people, vindicated for themselves the rights of modern
private property in estates to which they had only a feudal title”
Das Kapital Vol 1.
Most SOCIALISTS ARE NOT MARXISTS
BUT…………
It never hurts to quote Karl Marx

8. In The Communist Manifesto (1848) Marx and Engells listed 10 policies in
order to achieve socialism.
The first on the list should be of interest to Georgists:-
“Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty
generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public
purposes.”

9. Vol III Das Kapital
n Part VI Marx describes Differential Rent.
is description is different in detail but in broad
harmony with Ricardo or Henry George.

10. Marx on land
He gets it:
Enclosures;
Clearances;
Removing independent peasants from their land to provide workers
for the factories to be exploited by capitalists.

11. he Russian landowners ……… complain about two things: But the
landowners may take hope. Everything comes to those who wait..
..The second complaint is more characteristic. It is to the effect that
even if one has money, not enough labourers are to be had at any
time. The reason is that the Russian farm-laborer,
owing to the common ownership of land in the
village community, has not yet been fully
separated from his means of production and hence
is not yet a “free wage-laborer” in the full sense of the word.

12. Decision time
o we want Socialists,
rade Unionists and
o-operators
o advocate LVT?